


It Isn't a Weakness

by OutcastsAmongOutcasts



Category: Achievement Hunter, Rooster Teeth
Genre: Deaf!Gavin, M/M, achievement hunter au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-05 07:39:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3111521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OutcastsAmongOutcasts/pseuds/OutcastsAmongOutcasts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deaf!Gavin + high school AU. Michael meets and befriends the new British deaf student and his interpreter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is, of course, going to include American Sign Language. I’m an ASL 3 student so I don’t know everything about Deaf culture and their language and I don’t claim to but I do know a bit more than the common hearing American. If there’s anything that you don’t understand, feel free to comment and I will respond to the best of my abilities. Also, if I'm wrong on anything or you feel I could do something better, don't hesitate to comment. :)

Michael Jones and Ray Narvaez Jr. were sitting at their usual lunch table eating their lunches and chatting amongst themselves casually. It was just the two of them at that Thursday lunch hour as everybody else who usually sat with them seemed the be busy with clubs and shit. So, of course, they were arguing about video games.

“You’re fucking stupid!” Michael exclaimed gesturing wildly with his hands. “Banjo Kazooie is clearly better than Super Mario 64!”

“That’s bullshit,” Ray argued back calmly. “Everybody knows about Super Mario 64 and nobody knows what Banjo Kazooie even is.”

“You’ve never even played Banjo!”

Ray shrugged, “Doesn’t mean I don’t know a stupid game when I see it. I mean, a bear with a bird in his backpack collecting jigsaw pieces? I’m sure Nintendo was high as shit when they created it.”

“You’re high as shit,” Michael grumbled and rolled his eyes.

“Guilty as charged.”

They continued eating and talking. However halfway through Ray’s explanation of how to get past a level in a game, Michael noticed a weird kid in the background behind Ray whom he had never seen before making rapid hand gestures at an older man who seemed to be way too old to still be in high school. The man replied the same way and Michael recognized that they were communicating using sign language.

“Hey, who’s that?” Michael asked, nodding in the direction of the two strangers.

“Who’s who?” Ray asked a little confused by the quick change in subjects. Michael nodded in the direction of the two again and Ray turned around, “Oh, that’s the new deaf kid, Gavin, and his interpreter,” he said and turned back around.

“We have a deaf kid?”

Ray nodded, “We do now. He’s in my third period Am lit class. Apparently he transferred here from Britain for God knows what reason and he’s currently living with his interpreter and his family. Also he’s fluent in British Sign Language and mostly knows American Sign Language.”

Michael stared at Ray for a moment with a raised eyebrow then asked, “And you know all of this how?”

“He told me. We were partnered up for a brief partner activity and got finished early so I told him about myself and he told me about himself.”

“Hm,” Michael hummed in thought and took another bite of his sandwich. “I never thought they would’ve let a deaf kid into the school. I thought they had special schools or something.”

Ray shrugged, “He didn’t tell me why he transferred.”

The bell rang signalling the end of lunch and the two lads packed up their belongings, threw away the leftovers of their lunches, then parted ways to their classes.

Michael barely made it to his algebra 2 class as the bell rang. He took his seat near the back and put his bag in the seat of the desk in front of him which was always empty.

Class began, of course, with the teacher taking role. Once she reached the last names that started with ‘F’ she called out, “Free, Gavin?”

The room was silent and all of the students turned in different directions in search of the new student. However, he didn’t seem to be there.

“Has anyone seen Mr. Free?” The teacher asked the class. No one spoke up so she muttered, “Must’ve gotten lost,” then marked something on her clipboard before continuing through the list.

A few minutes after the teacher started the math lesson, a student, who Michael recognized as Gavin, and his interpreter entered the classroom. Gavin looked sheepish and the tattooed man following him looked extremely irritated.

Gavin started signing rapidly and his interpreter started interpreting, “He says that he’s sorry for being late but we got lost because he was too much of an idiot to grab a map when it was offered to him.”

Gavin had finished signing earlier than his interpreter had finished translating so Michael got the idea that that’s not what Gavin had signed but shrugged it off because it was probably a lot closer to the truth.

“That’s quite alright,” the teacher replied. “Take a seat where you can see Mr. Ramsey and we’ll begin.”

Mr. Ramsey relayed the message to Gavin who nodded, looked around for a seat, and then walked down the aisle towards Michael. He looked down at the seat, looked back up a Michael, then pointed at the seat. It took Michael a minute to understand what he was asking but when he understood he quickly removed his backpack from seat and the new kid sat down.

From there the class went relatively normal. The teacher explained the new lesson, did examples, etc. and everyone wrote down the notes. However, the teacher was having trouble keeping everyone’s attention as a lot of students kept watching Mr. Ramsey signing everything the teacher said.

After a half an hour of explaining the lesson and re-explaining it several times, the students were set loose to work on their assignment for that section. Michael got right into the homework having understood the lesson and wanting to complete it so he’d have a free night that night.

However, just as he was getting started on the second problem, the person in front of him swung his elbow into Michael’s temple.

“Ow, what the fuck?” The brunette hissed and rubbed his head where he had been hit then looked up to glare at the new kid.

Gavin didn’t seem to notice as he was flailing his arms wildly in the direction of his interpreter who was sitting at an empty desk across the classroom looking down at his phone. Gavin gave up after a minute of flailing and instead picked up his pen and flung it across two rows of desks and hit Mr. Ramsey right on the cheek.

“Nice shot,” a student to Gavin’s left muttered and several other students who had been distracted by the deaf student made sounds of agreement.

Michael watched in amusement as Gavin and Mr. Ramsey started signing angrily at each other across the classroom. He hadn’t the first clue as to what they were signing but it was still fun to watch their hands fly around in rapid motions and their facial expressions continuously morph.

“Mr. Ramsey,” the teacher spoke up interrupting their conversation.

Mr. Ramsey put up a clenched fist towards Gavin signalling him to stop signing before turning to the teacher and politely asking, “Yes?”

“Please move closer to Mr. Free so that your conversations do not disrupt other students who are trying to work.”

The interpreter looked around just noticing all of the students staring before nodding and saying, “Right, sorry, I’ll move.”

“Thank you,” the teacher said and went back to her work at her desk. Without even looking up, she added, “You can switch with Mr. Williams.”

The boy to the right of Gavin collected his belongings and moved to open up the seat for Mr. Ramsey who gratefully took it.

Gavin and Mr. Ramsey went back to their conversation and everybody else went back to work on their homework. When Michael was about halfway through his assignment he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up to find Gavin and Mr. Ramsey looking at him.

“What?” The brunette asked with a little annoyance leaking into his voice.

Mr. Ramsey seemed a little taken back by the annoyance but pushed it aside, although, too, irritated, and said while signing at the same time, “Gavin needs help with problem nine. You seem to understand what you’re doing. Can you help him?”

Michael looked at Gavin with consideration before nodding, “Yeah, I guess I could try. Don’t know how much help I’ll be, though.”

So Michael started helping Gavin with his homework. It turned from having to help him with just number nine to having to help him with every problem after that. It probably wouldn’t have taken so long if there hadn’t been communication barriers and if they hadn’t kept getting off track and making stupid jokes but they pushed through anyways. The teacher surprisingly didn’t make any comment about them talking during work time even though it was clearly distracting everyone around them.

The bell rung when they were a little more than halfway through the assignment. Michael couldn’t find it in himself to be irritated with Gavin for keeping him from getting his work done. He found himself warming up to the new student quickly and easily. Even his interpreter (who had told him to just call him Geoff) was really cool.

“Thanks for helping him out,” Geoff told Michael as Michael was packing up his stuff. “This idiot would’ve never figured it out on his own and I haven’t been in a math class since high school.”

Michael felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up at Gavin just to have a piece of paper shoved into his face. He grabbed the paper and examined it. It was a phone number with the words ' _Text me sometime_ ' scrawled across the top.

Michael nodded to him and gave him a thumbs up trying to communicate he understood. Gavin seemed to find amusement in this and returned his thumbs up before waving goodbye and leaving with his interpreter following him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somewhat important note: if a character in the story was stated to know sign language, isn't Deaf, and is around a Deaf character, just imagine that while they talk they're also signing.

The next day at lunch Michael, Lindsay, and Kerry were around talking and eating per usual. Ray was off with Tina probably making out in an empty classroom or something.

"Hey, have you seen the new deaf kid?" Kerry asked casually.

"Deaf kid?" Lindsay asked looking at him with confusion and interest.

Michael nodded, "Yeah, he's in my algebra 2 class. I had to help him with his homework. He's an idiot."

"You can't say that about a deaf person!" Kerry whisper-yelled leaning closer to Michael as if he was afraid someone was going to hear them.

Michael gave him an unimpressed glare, "You're an idiot. He's a human being too, you know. I would call anyone that I have to explain the same damn problem three times to an idiot."

"Well, yeah, but he's... disabled," Kerry whispered it as if it was taboo.

Michael's glare just hardened, "You are a fucking moron, Kerry."

Just then Gavin and Geoff walked up to their table and their attention turned towards them. Kerry seemed to sit up straighter and avoid eye contact while Michael just looked at them lazily and Lindsay greeted them both with a wave and a smile.

Gavin waved hello and Geoff asked, "May we sit here?"

"Sure, go ahead," Michael replied.

They sat down on either side of the lunch table, Gavin sitting next to Michael and Geoff next to Lindsay who was next to Kerry. Instantly Lindsay waved, got Gavin's attention, and, to everyone's surprise, started signing to him.

"My name is Lindsay," she said as she signed. She wasn't nearly as fast or skilled as Gavin or Geoff but still seemed to know what she was doing. She pointed to Kerry and said, "He's Kerry."

"You fucking know Sign Language?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, a little," she replied, her signing continued as she spoke. "Just enough to hold a conversation. I have a deaf cousin who visits every so often and she used to visit a lot when I was younger."

“That’s cool,” Geoff said. “Makes me life slightly easier.”

Gavin started signing to Geoff who interpreted, “What do your parents pay me for? They pay me to keep your bitchass from getting in trouble, that’s what they pay me for. I’m more of your babysitter than your interpreter.”

Everyone laughed as Gavin pouted and stuck his tongue out at his interpreter.

So lunch continued as normal. They all talked and laughed and ate. Gavin and Geoff fit in with their group perfectly. Kerry was a little awkward and hesitant at first but joined in after awhile.

Right in the middle of Gavin telling them a story, a muffin came sailing across the cafeteria and hit him right in the head. Everyone turned to see who had thrown the muffin and found out that the source was a group of laughing jocks.

“Hey, dumbass!” One of them called. “Listen to me when I call you!”

The group burst into laughter at the joke and started to crudely imitate sign language.

Gavin looked embarrassed and confused but mostly pissed. Geoff was livid.

“Hey, dickheads!” Geoff shot to his feet holding up a banana threateningly. “You wanna fuck with me?! I was in the army, I’ll kick your asses!”

At the sight of the tattooed man, the assholes backed off still laughing. Geoff clenched his fists, squishing his weapon of choice, then sat back down muttering, "Assholes better fucking run."

Gavin was looking down at the food in front of him, glaring at it intensely. Then before anyone could say anything, he stood up and briskly left the table heading for the exit.

“Ah, shit,” Geoff swore. He got up to follow him, “Sorry. It was nice meeting you guys. See you later.” And he left.

“What a bunch of assholes,” Lindsay growled, glaring in the direction where the jocks once were. “Next time I see them, I’m going to kick one of them in the dick.”

“Same,” Ray said as he came up and sat on top of the table. “I don’t know why but I’m all for kicking people in the dick.”

The bell rang signalling the ending of lunch period.

"Some assholes were making fun of Gavin," Michael explained to Ray as he picked up and threw away his leftovers from his lunch and the lunch that Gavin had left in his dramatic exit.

"Fucking _what_? Really? Now I'm really up for kicking some dicks."

"Yeah, me too."

They left the cafeteria and split up to go to their different classes. Michael entered the algebra classroom a few minutes before the bell was supposed to ring. He was surprised to find Gavin and Geoff already in their desks rapidly signing in deep discussion. He took his seat behind Gavin and started to get stuff out.

"Hey, Michael."

Michael looked towards Geoff at the sound of his name then at Gavin who had started rapidly signing at him.

“He says, ‘I’m sorry for leaving during lunch. Those guys were being assholes and I should’ve ignored them.’” Geoff interpreted.

“That’s fine, dude,” Michael replied with a shrug. “Just douche bags being douche bags. We’ll kick their asses next time.”

"Damn right we will," Geoff muttered and relayed the message.

From there, class went normal. They did notes and shit then worked on their homework. Michael, Geoff, and Gavin decided to all work together (although it ended up much like the day before and Michael did most of the explaining and helping while Gavin frustrated both him and Geoff to no end) and, to no one's surprise, didn't get the homework finished. However, that didn't bother Michael at all because it was Friday and homework was going to be the last thing on his mind that night.

Michael was packing up his stuff to leave class when he noticed Gavin and Geoff having some kind of argument or something. Gavin was pouting and trying to pull puppy dog eyes but Geoff just looked slightly annoyed. They signed back and forth until Geoff seemed to relent. Gavin's face split into a huge grin and they turned to address Michael.

"Gavin wants to know if you could come over for the evening," Geoff told him. "I should tell you that I'm having some friends of my own over also. Just FYI."

Michael considered it for a moment before nodding, "Yeah, sure, I guess. I'm good for it."

Gavin squealed in delight, not even needing Geoff to tell him what Michael had said.

"Alright, just meet up with us after school and I'll give you a ride."

Michael nodded and they left the classroom just as the warning bell rang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took me crazy long to do and it took on many different forms and ideas before I was somewhat satisfied with it. I apologize if it's not the best but I hope that in the future chapters with be better. Thank you to those who left kudos, comments, and subscribed to the story. I hope to see you all soon :) Thanks for reading


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing at the moment is so super hard and this chapter was a bitch to write and figure out. I hope you guys like it :)

The ride to Geoff’s house was short and comfortably silent. They really didn’t live that far from the school although it was on the opposite side of town from where Michael lived. They pulled up to the house and got out of the car.

"Just to warn you, Michael, two of my friends are over," Geoff told him as they walked up to the house. "I'll introduce you when we get inside."

They entered the house and were met by three people in the living room -- two males and a female. The female had blonde hair, tattoos covering her arms, and a few different piercings. One of the males had red hair with a large beard and glasses. The other had dirty blonde hair and striking blue eyes.

The woman walked over to Geoff and greeted him with a hug. Then she turned to Michael and Gavin and signed something.

Gavin hurriedly replied and realization dawned on her face. "Oh shit, sorry, I assumed you were deaf. Hi, I'm Griffon. Geoff's wife."

"I'm Michael," he replied and they shook hands.

"Nice to meet you," then she turned around and pointed to the man with the dirty blonde hair, "This is Mr. Ryan Haywood."

Ryan waved awkwardly.

"And his interpreter," she pointed at the red haired man, "Mr. Jack Pattillo."

"Nice to meet you," Jack replied cheerily.

Ryan tapped Jack on the shoulder to get his attention and then signed to him. Jack replied with a chuckle and Gavin huffed and pouted.

"Ryan just said that he was surprised Gavin made a friend," Geoff explained chuckling.

"I said he probably paid you to pretend to be his friend," Jack told Michael.

Michael laughed, "Well, it was an easy way to make $20."

Everyone laughed except for Gavin who, once Geoff told him what Michael said, continued pouting and lightly shoved him.

"Alright, well, we have adult things to discuss," Geoff said and signed. "You two should head upstairs and do whatever teenagers do."

Michael was a little confused but he followed Gavin upstairs anyways. How was he going to communicate with Gavin without Geoff? He didn't know sign language for shit. He suddenly felt like an idiot for not knowing how to communicate with Gavin without Geoff around even though he'd known him for all of two days.

They went up to Gavin's bedroom. It was messy with clothes everywhere and random shit littered on the one desk. A good sized TV was hung on the wall with a shelf underneath it that was filled with an assortment of books and games. One thing that Michael found odd, though, was that near the door there was a small white board hung on a nail. When they entered the room, Gavin grabbed the board.

The Brit turned towards Michael the board in hand and froze for a second. He handed the board to Michael then went to his desk and started looking through the mess on top of it and through drawers.

Michael took a step to go help him look for whatever it was he was searching for but he stepped on something. He looked down and found a whiteboard marker at his feet. Then it clicked. He quickly used the marker to write something on the board before taking a shirt and throwing it at Gavin to get his attention.

Gavin turned around and read the board which said 'Is this what you were looking for?' and Michael cheekily held up the marker. He laughed, grabbed the marker from him, and wrote something.

'I use this to communicate with my hearing friends' it read. Michael nodded in understanding and Gavin smiled proudly then erased his writing and wrote something else.

'Do you want to play some Halo?'

Michael nodded and grabbed the board from him and wrote,'Hell fuckin' yeah!'

Gavin laughed and started to set up his Xbox. While he was busy, Michael took out his phone and sent a quick text to Lindsay.

Michael: Hey can u teach me some sign language?

She replied within seconds.

Lindsay: Yah sure. Y?

Michael: I'm over at Gavin's and I want to be able to communicate with him without having to have someone there to fuckin translate or interpret or whatever.

Lindsay: Aw :) Ill com over 2morrow teach u some basic signs.

Michael: Thx

Michael put away his phone and Gavin gave him a controller and they started playing.

It wasn't as awkward as Michael had originally thought it would be. He thought it would just be him and Gavin sitting next to each other awkwardly on the bed without saying anything and not communicating at all but they figured out a system. This system was basically just hitting each other and pointing at things on the screen.

Michael sometimes forgot that his friend couldn't hear him and he would shout and swear in his rage. Gavin found it amusing to watch Michael get angry and frustrated and soon was purposefully trying to piss him off by doing stupid shit.

Geoff actually came in once to investigate the source of the shouting.

"Gavin's being a piece of shit!" Was all Geoff needed to hear to understand the situation. Then there were times when Gavin would go off into a rage and sign rapidly. Michael enjoyed watching his hands fly and his voice squawk and growl. There was almost something poetic about it.

After about two hours of playing different games, they decided to stop playing and just talk to each other using the marker board. Michael told Gavin about how he moved from New Jersey a year ago for his mom's job and how he had another brother who was a great big bag of dicks. Gavin told him about his move from England to America and how he missed his best friend Dan back home but they communicated regularly. Dan apparently was hearing but knew BSL.

An hour later, Michael received a text from his mother requesting that he returned home soon. He showed Gavin the text and Gavin told him that Geoff could give him a ride home.

'Thx 4 having me over' Michael wrote on the board just as he was leaving.

'Thanks for coming over' Gavin replied with a smile. Then he erased it and wrote 'You're my boi :)'

Michael snickered and wrote back 'Hell yeah, boi. C u Monday'

As Michael went down the stairs to ask Geoff for a ride, he couldn't help but think about how weirdly comfortable he was with Gavin. Him and Gavin had known each other for all of two days yet it felt like he'd known Gavin for at least a few months if not more. Also he decided that he was definitely going to become fluent in ASL one way or another.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! The support on this story is incredible. Thanks to all who continue to read and leave kudos. I hope to have the next chapter up soon :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I got this chapter posted in a week. I'm proud of myself. I hope you guys are ready to learn some neat things. :)

"Okay, let's start. A. Good. B. Good. C. Good. D. No, that's an F. This is a D."

Michael huffed and corrected his handshape, "Fuck. Okay."

"Okay. A. Good. B. Good. C. Good. D. That's still an F."

"Fuck!" Michael swore and slammed his hand down on his bed.

Him and Lindsay had been sitting on his bed going at this for about fifteen minutes. Lindsay had gone through the alphabet several times while Michael copied her handshapes trying to commit them to memory. However, now that he was trying to do them from memory, it proved to be more difficult and frustrating than he had originally thought.

"Fingerspelling is fucking frustrating," Lindsay told him. "However, it is also a big part of ASL."

"Fucking stupid," Michael grumbled. "How do you say 'fuck this' in ASL?"

Lindsay shrugged, "I wish I knew. Maybe we can ask Geoff sometime. Now, back from the beginning. A. Good. B. Good. C. Good. D. Excellent. E. Good..."

And they went on from there repeatedly doing the alphabet until Michael could fingerspell it without an issue. Next he learned how to fingerspell his name and then practiced spelling names of different people, companies, TV shows, bands, etc. He was slow and clumsy, of course, and would still often mix up letters but it was better than what he could do an hour prior.

After an hour of fingerspelling practice, they moved on to learning basic signs such as 'Hello', 'Yes', 'No', 'Good', 'Bad', and 'Nice to meet you'.

"Okay, so, 'nice'," Lindsay showed him the sign bringing her dominant hand down onto her nondominant hand and making a sweeping motion off the hand. "Meet-you." She formed both of her hands into 1 handshapes, put her dominant hand in front of her, and then brought her nondominant hand to meet her dominant hand.

"Where's 'to'?" Michael asked.

"There is no 'to'," Lindsay told him. "Just 'nice' and 'meet-you'."

Michael scoffed, "That's fucking weird. I want English to be like that."

He copied what Lindsay had done and practiced it a few times until he had it down.

"Awesome," Lindsay smiled. "Now, let's move on to questions."

Michael had thought that fingerspelling was going to be the most complex and frustrating part of ASL. He was wrong.

"What the fuck do you mean?! Why would the question word come at the end of the damn sentence? That makes no sense! It's 'Why would you do that?' not 'You do that why?'!"

"I don't fucking know! I'm not Deaf. I don't understand their grammar rules, I just follow them."

Michael huffed, "That's fucking stupid. But, fine, whatever. I'll go with it."

"Okay. Also, there's a difference between yes/ no questions and wh- questions," Lindsay told him. "For yes/ no questions, your eyebrows have to be raised," she demonstrated by raising her eyebrows and pointing at them. "For wh- questions, your eyebrows have to be down."

This concept seemed simple enough for Michael. Again, however, he was proved wrong.

Lindsay taught him some simple questions of both kinds and he found himself mixing up his eyebrows each time. Yes/ no questions were worse than wh- questions. He was so used to scrunching his eyebrows in confusion whenever he asked any question. Breaking out of that habit was frustrating.

"Fuck it, I'm done for the day," Michael growled and crossed his arms. "This shit is harder than I thought."

Lindsay rolled her eyes, "Did you expect it to be easy? It's a whole other language with different grammar rules and everything. It's based around an entire culture that you only recently started to interact with. You can't expect to get it in a day or a week or a month."

Michael looked down like a pouting child and grumbled, "Yeah, I fucking know that. I just want to be able to talk to Gavin."

"Well, at least now you can say at least a few things to him. And that'll grow with time and exposure. Hell, maybe you could get Geoff and Gavin to teach you some shit. I'm a bit rusty and some of my signs might be outdated."

"Yeah, okay. Maybe I'll try talking to him on Monday. Surprise him."

Lindsay smiled brightly, "That'd be cool."

Michael nodded, "Yeah. So, you want to go grab some lunch at McShitty's?"

"Psh, no. I'm classier than that shit. Let's hit Taco Bell."

"Fine but you're paying."

"In your dreams, bitch."

They got up to leave but Michael told Lindsay to meet him downstairs while he grabbed something real quick. Once she was gone, he searched his room for his algebra notebook and searched it until he found a page from two days ago with Gavin's number. Quickly he entered the number into his phone and texted 'Hey, Gav, it's Michael. I've got a surprise for you on Monday.'

"Hurry up, asshole!" Lindsay yelled from downstairs.

"Calm down, I'm coming!" Michael shouted back. He put his phone in his pocket and ran from his room to rejoin his friend.

~

All morning on Monday, Michael was anxious to see Gavin. He didn't have any classes with him besides algebra and didn't have a chance to see him until lunch and that just didn't come around soon enough. He was practicing fingerspelling his name constantly throughout the day just to make sure he didn't fuck it up. He didn't want to look like an idiot.

Finally the lunch bell rang and Michael's anxiety shot up. He practiced fingerspelling his name at least three times between his locker and the lunch room. His fingers were shaking slightly as he sat down at his usual seat and took out his sandwich.

Five agonizing minutes later, Michael finally spotted Gavin and Geoff walking towards their table. They sat down chatting idly with each other in sign language that Michael couldn't even begin to understand. He could pick out their fingerspelling but couldn't make out any of the words because they were spelling so fast. That only caused Michael to get more anxious.

He looked down at this uneaten lunch staring at it just a bit too intensely. He didn't understand why he was so anxious. He never really was an anxious type of person. And this was just for Gavin, for God's sake. He had just met him last week. He was barely friends with him. He shouldn't care what he thinks of him.

But it was for Gavin. He didn't want to fuck it up. He didn't want Gavin and/or Geoff to think he was a moron because he fucked up spelling his own name. He wanted to learn ASL so that he could directly communicate with Gavin. He had to start somewhere.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder interrupting his thoughts. He looked up to find Gavin and Geoff looking at him.

Gavin started signing and Geoff interpreted, "'What was the surprise that you wanted to show me'?"

Slowly and robotically, as if his mind went into autopilot, Michael put his hand to his chest and mouthed to himself 'my', then he did the sign that Lindsay had taught him for name, and then he slowly and clumsily fingerspelled his name.

Gavin's expression was frozen for a second before it turned into a huge grin. Geoff looked impressed and was smiling also.

"Where'd you learn to sign?" Geoff asked.

"I taught him," Lindsay said proudly from next to Michael. "He asked me to teach him some basic ASL."

Gavin signed something and Geoff interpreted, "You want to learn ASL?"

"Uh," Michael attempted to sign 'yes'. "I want to be able to communicate with you. Although I'm still pretty shit."

Gavin's smile grew even wider.

Geoff shrugged, "Shit's not easy. Gavin and I can teach you more. It'll take awhile until you're fluent, though, and it's frustrating."

"Challenge accepted," Michael replied cooly.

Gavin then started signing and Geoff voiced, "'This is very important for you to learn. This sign means penis.' Gavin, you dick."

Gavin demonstrated the sign as Geoff rolled his eyes. Michael laughed and immitatted the sign. Lindsay was laughing also.

"Obviously a very important sign for you to learn," Geoff sighed. "I need a drink."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that wasn't too much learning or it wasn't too confusing. If anyone has questions, feel free to comment or send a message or whatever. Comments of all kinds are welcome and kudos are encouraged :) Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to get done. Things have been very up and down lately and I've been fighting some rough stuff. But, here's the next chapter. I hope that this is good!

“No! Gavin, you dick!”

It had been a little over two months since Michael and Ray had met Gavin and started to learn ASL.

“Michael, please, that’s my last worm!”

Even though neither of the hearing boys were fluent, communication between the three friends was much easier than it had been before. So, of course, they hung out more often.

“Ah, fuck!”

At the moment, Michael and Gavin were hanging at Ray’s on a Friday night. They were all squished onto Ray's bed playing a less than friendly game of Worms.

*Gavin noises*

Michael cheered as the game declared him the winner of the round and Gavin pouted.

"Aw, don't be a baby," Michael said and signed with a mock pouty face.

'Don't be mean,' Gavin replied sticking out his tongue. 'I'm Deaf, you can't be mean to me.'

Michael and Ray both laughed and Michael signed, 'You are such a child. Poor you, you helpless baby.'

Gavin lightly shoved Michael and he just shoved back harder causing Gavin to lose balance and fall off the bed with a squawk. Michael looked over the side laughing harder than before and found the Brit laughing also. Michael held out a hand to help him up and he took it but instead of getting up he pulled Michael down on top of him.

"You fucking moron!" Ray laughed as he looked over the edge.

Michael and Gavin were a mess of limbs, swear words, and squawks as they tried to move around to get up in the small space between the wall and Ray's bed. Gavin was, of course, trapped under the brunette and kept struggling and worming around making it all the harder for Michael to get up off of him.

"Stop moving around, you stupid fuck!" Michael shouted. Of course, that didn't stop Gavin.

"If you two are going to continue grinding, get a room," Ray told them as he leaned back onto his bed and grabbed one of the controllers.

Michael's cheeks burned and finally he was able to pin Gavin's arms down and glared down into his face.

"St-op moo-ving," Michael slowly mouthed to him.

Gavin smiled and nodded in understanding. The brunette sighed and gave him an impressed glare only causing the Brit's grin to widen. Michael just wanted to kiss the grin right off his face. Wait, not kiss. Hit. He wanted to slap the grin right off his face.

Michael denied that he wanted to kiss Gavin like he had so many times before. For the past month he had had these random moments where all he wanted to do was hold the Brit close, run his hands gently through that soft, wild hair, and press his lips to his own.

Of course, every single time that popped into his head he’d quickly brush it away and deny that if had ever happened. He wasn’t gay and as far as he knew Gavin wasn’t either. After awhile, this weird thing would go away and they’d continue being friends like normal. That’s how it was supposed to work and he would be happy with that. ...Right?

Michael shook himself from his thoughts and started to slowly lift himself off of gavin careful not to step on him or anything. He got himself off and back onto the bed. Ray had taken over the Xbox and was playing some Halo Master Chief Collection leisurely. After a moment Gavin joined them on the bed.

Ray paused the game, turned towards the two, and signed, ‘Soon, you guys should start heading home. My mom doesn’t want guests here past 8.’

‘OK,’ Gavin replied and turned to Michael. ‘You’re staying over, right?’

Michael nodded.

‘Cool. We should probably leave now.’

Ray nodded, signed, ‘See you guys Monday. Use protection.’ and then turned back to his game.

Michael and Gavin left Ray’s house and started their journey to Gavin’s house which was only a few blocks away. It was a cold evening in Austin but that wasn’t a problem for Michael as he was wearing a jacket and a beanie. No surprise, Gavin had neither of those and was freezing.

The brunette sighed, took off his jacket, and shoved it into the Brit's hands. Gavin looked at him and looked like he was about to protest but a hard look from Michael shut him up. He put on the jacket and seemed to relax into it.

One thing Michael really liked about being friends with Gavin was that it didn't require talking over even signing. They were in tune to each other and could communicate easily through looks and expressions. It made it feel a lot more natural.

Michael tapped Gavin on the shoulder and signed, 'Doing anything interesting this weekend?'

Gavin thought for a moment and shook his head, 'No. Maybe go through the Halo 3 campaign and clean up any achievements. Can't think of anything else. You?'

'Probably some chores and shit. Maybe homework if I'm not feeling library.'

Gavin giggled and Michael gave him a questioning look and asked, 'What's funny, asshole?'

'You signed library,' Gavin replied.

'Yeah. So? I'm a library person.'

Gavin giggled again, 'You mean-' and he did a different sign and then slowly fingerspelled 'L-A-Z-Y'.

Michael rolled his eyes, "Fucking hell." 'Signs are stupidly similarly. That's bullshit.'

Gavin shrugged with his stupid, cute grin still plastered on his face, 'I didn't make the language. I just use it.'

'Asshole.'

'Love you too, Michael.'

They continued walking to Gavin's house in metaphorical silence. They were both kind of lost in their own thoughts.

He didn’t actually like him, right? He didn’t really like him. They were close, of course, and everyone could see that. They both had been being teased as a gay couple at school plenty but those were just assholes who were looking to get under their skin. Maybe it was just thought getting into his mind. It was ridiculous and he had to let it go and forget about it.

Soon they arrived at the Ramsey residence, said hey to Geoff and Griffon, and went up to Gavin’s room. It wasn’t that late at night but Michael still found himself pretty tired out from the school week and one look at Gavin told him that the feeling was mutual.

‘How about we watch a movie?’ Gavin suggested and started looking through his DVDs. He threw a few on his bed and Michael started looking through them for something to watch.

Michael picked up a movie, looked it over, nodded in approval then tapped Gavin and pointed at it.

Gavin took it and looked it over, 'I haven't seen this. I stole it from Geoff to get back at him for farting in my coffee a few weeks ago. He's been going mental looking for it.'

Michael mock gasped in horror, 'You haven't seen Caddyshack? You poor child. We're watching it then. I've chosen.'

Gavin laughed and rolled his eyes, 'You drama queen. Fine, let’s watch it.'

The Brit popped the movie into his Xbox and they laid down on his bed. When the movie started, they both sat separate. As the movie went on, though, they slowly got closer together until near the end when Gavin was curled into Michael’s side with his arms wrapped around his midsection fast asleep.

“You stupid prick,” Michael sighed, shook his head, and ran his hands absentmindedly through Gavin’s hair. “Why do you have to look so cute when you’re asleep? God, I’m so happy you can’t hear that and wow that makes me sound like an asshole.”

Michael turned off the Xbox and the TV then he hugged Gavin to him and went to sleep cherishing the feeling of Gavin against him while it lasted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Feedback is very appreciated and kudos as always welcome as well. Hope to see you all soon!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was actually the hardest chapter to write. There were so many different ways I could have gone and it took me awhile to choose a direction but I think I've landed on one that's satisfactory.  
> I hope you all enjoy :)

It was the first time that Gavin had been over to Michael’s and Michael was nervous as fuck. He didn’t even know why he was so fucking nervous. He had friends over all the fucking time. Lindsay had almost become another resident because she was over there so much. But for some damn reason, Gavin made him very nervous.

"Okay, mom, just don't be stupid," Michael told his mom. She raised an eyebrow at the word 'stupid' but let him continue. "Gavin's deaf, not mentally retarded. Just speak normally and I'll interpret. It's very simple."

His mother rolled her eyes, "Michael, I know. I'll be on my best behavior."

Michael huffed, "Okay, fine. Good. That's good."

"You're so nervous," his mom pointed out with a smile. "You must really like this boy."

Michael felt his cheeks grow warm and glared at his mom, "Shut up. He's a good friend."

His mother chuckled, "Yeah, sure."

They were startled by the doorbell ringing and Michael's nervousness shot up. He told his mom that he would get it and went to the door. He looked out the peephole and saw only an eye looking back at him.

"You fucking prick," Michael muttered and opened the door.

Gavin nearly fell over onto Michael since he had been leaning all of his weight on the door so he could put his eye up to the peephole. Gavin kept himself from falling over and, after regaining his balance, stepped back and gave a polite wave of greeting.

'You idiot,' Michael signed with a chuckle and waved him in.

Once Gavin was in, Michael's mom instantly approached him with a wide smile and said very loudly and with unnecessary clarity, "Hi, Gavin! I'm Michael's mom. It's so nice to meet you!"

"Mom!" Michael hissed and glared at her.

Gavin turned to his friend and Michael interpreted for him. Then he added a quick apology.

The Brit waved it off, turned back to his mother, and replied, 'It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Jones. You look lovely today.'

Michael rolled his eyes and told his mother what Gavin had signed.

"Aw, how sweet! Thank you!" Mrs. Jones replied with a smile that was way too wide.

"We're going to go to my room now," Michael said and signed. He started to nudge Gavin towards the stairs.

"Have fun, you two!"

Once they got to Michael's room, Michael apologized to Gavin.

'I told her not to be stupid like that,' he told him with a frown.

'It's fine, Michael,' Gavin replied and waved it off. 'I'm used to it by now.'

'I see people treating you like that at school all the time. Or they bully you. How do you deal with those assholes?'

The Brit shrugged and sat down on Michael's bed, 'When I was younger, I didn't deal with it well. Over time, I just learned to ignore it and accept that people are stupid. It's not my fault.'

Michael nodded in understanding, 'That's surprisingly mature of you. I wouldn't expect that kind of maturity from a dick like you.'

Gavin pouted and playfully shoved Michael, ‘I’m mature. I’m more mature than you.’

‘Sure. Believe what you want,’ Michael chuckled and went over to his shelf. He pulled out two controllers and tossed one to Gavin, ‘Let’s play some Halo.’

‘Alright,’ Gavin smiled.

~

“So, when’re you and Gavin gonna bang?”

Michael almost choked on his food at the inquiry and glared at Ray. He quickly swallowed and replied, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Ray smirked and leaned back in his seat taking a bite of his pizza, “You know what I mean. You two are so gay for each other and everyone sees it but you two.”

“You’re fucking stupid,” Michael told him. He could feel his cheeks getting warm and angrily looked down at the pizza in front of him.

"Why don't you just tell him that you like him?" Ray casually suggested with shrug. "That worked for Tina and I."

Michael sighed, "I don't know if he's gay and I don't want to make our friendship awkward."

"So, you're just going to suffer in silence and maybe hope that he admits to liking you first?"

Michael nodded and took a bite of his pizza, "Yeah, basically."

The Puerto Rican sighed and shook his head, "That's a sad existence, dude. But if that's how you want to play it, I'll respect that. Just think that he may be doing the same thing that you're doing. Nothing will get done that way."

"Yeah, yeah," Michael rolled his eyes. He was right, though. Nothing would get done if that were the case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading! I really value feedback so please leave a comment or kudos if you wish. I hope to see you all soon!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been such a long time since the last update. I kind of didn't know what to do next in the story but then during Christmas Eve service ideas just popped in my head and I started writing them on one of the programs. So, here's the next chapter. Merry Christmas :)

Gavin and Michael were hanging out in Gavin's room for the evening. The Halo pause screen was on in the background but they had forgotten that in favor of just sitting and talking. 

'What the fuck? What kind of question is that?' Michael signed rolling his eyes.

'It's a perfectly good question!' Gavin pouted.

'I don't think legs could ever forget that they were legs.'

'But what if they did!'

Michael laughed, 'You're a moron. How do you even come up with these questions?'

'I have a curious mind,' Gavin shrugged. 'It keeps Geoff entertained when we play Minecraft.'

Michael shook his head, 'You're fucking weird.'

'Love you too,' Gavin signed with a shit-eating grin.

Michael childishly stuck his tongue out and Gavin replied in kind.

'I have a question for you now,' the brunette signed seemingly a little apprehensively.

Gavin gave a little wave as to say 'go on.'

'Would you date a male?'

Gavin thought for a short moment but nodded, 'Depends on the guy but, yeah, I would.'

Michael's eyebrows shot up clearly surprised at the answer and his heart leapt a little. Then he asked, 'Are you gay?'

The Brit shook his head, 'No, I'm bisexual. I like males and females.'

'I see,' Michael replied. 'That's cool.' 

He'd heard of bisexuals before. He heard that a girl named Meg at their school was bi and she seemed cool from what he saw.

Gavin seemed surprised at the response and signed, 'You're cool with it?'

'Yeah. What do I care?'

Gavin shrugged, 'People don't really understand the idea.'

'I'm not a fucking moron,' Michael replied. 'It's not a new concept to me.''

Gavin nodded in understanding and they stopped signing, an awkward tension filling the air. 

Finally, Michael just said, "Fuck it." And he signed, 'Would you go out with me?'

Gavin seemed somewhat taken back by the question. He seemed to consider it for a moment before averting his eyes, shaking his head, and signing 'no.'

Michael's brain seemed to freeze and his blood ran cold. He had considered him saying no but didn't completely mentally prepare himself for it. 

"No?" He echoed out loud to himself. 

Gavin just shook his head.

'Why not?' Michael asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Gavin shrugged, 'Does it matter? You're straight, aren't you?'

'So?'

Confusion crossed Gavin's face, 'What do you mean "so"? You're straight! You wouldn't go out with me even if I had said yes.'

Michael looked down at the bed they were on, refusing to meet Gavin's gaze. After a moment, he signed, 'I need to go home. I'll see you Monday.' Then got up and left leaving a very confused Brit behind.

…

"You are a fucking moron."

Michael sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Yeah, I know I am."

It was Saturday and Michael decided to meet up with Ray at a nearby burger joint and tell him about the evening before.

"You were right there and you fucking blew it!" Ray threw his hands up and let out an exasperated sigh. “You're even more pathetic than when I asked Tina out for the first time.”

“I know, I know,” Michael rolled his eyes. “And I just fucking left him like an idiot.”

Ray shook his head, “Yeah, good job. How are you gonna fix it?”

“I don't know. I couldn't sleep because I was trying to figure out how to fix it.”

Ray thought for a moment, “Well, I think the first thing to figure out is if you're actually or not.”

“I am straight,” Michael replied immediately and too quickly. 

The Puerto Rican sitting across from him just raised an eyebrow and took a sip of his drink, silent accusations piercing him.

“I-I mean,” Michael continued, rubbing the back of his neck and averting his gaze, “I think I am.”

“Have you ever wanted to bone a dude?” Ray asked.

Michael thought for a minute, “I mean, besides Gavin, no.”

“So, you're gay for Gavin,” Ray said simply and popped another fry into his mouth. “Just tell him that. Then use protection.”

Michael rolled his eyes, “Ha ha. I'll talk to him about it at school. I need some time to think it over and figure it out.”

Ray nodded, “Good idea. Now, I have to go get ready for a movie date with Tina.”

“What movie you guy seeing?”

The Puerto Rican shrugged and got up to throw his trash away, “I don’t know, I just know that we’re gonna have the make out seats.”

Michael rolled his eyes, “Nice. Have fun.

“See ya, man,” and, with a wave, Ray left the pizza shop.

Michael sighed and did the same. He had a long walk home and lots to think about.

_ Half Hour Later _

Michael was still walking home lost deep in his thoughts. He just wasn’t sure. He just felt that he liked Gavin but at the same time he didn’t want to say the wrong thing and be wrong and then it get all awkward and then Gavin wouldn’t want to be around him and eehhhh. Plus, Gavin already said he wouldn’t go out with him so why should he bother telling him? 

_ But he wanted Gavin _ . If he was real with him, he just wanted to be with Gavin and he just wanted  _ him _ . It sounded so ridiculous to him but it was the truth.

Michael’s thoughts were interrupted by his phone buzzing in his pocket. He took it out and raised an eyebrow at the caller ID. “Gavin”.

“Dumbass probably butt dialed me,” Michael mumbled, ignored the call, and replaced it in his pocket. 

Now, what was he thinking about again? Right, the idiot that just butt dialed him. The idiot that he wanted. Okay, so he would tell him. How would he tell him? Invite him over or-?

Michael’s phone began again and he whipped it out. It was Gavin again. How the fuck did someone manage to butt dial someone twice? Idiot.

This time, however, he decided to answer it. Maybe he’d get something entertaining out of it. 

“Hello?”

“Hey, Michael, it’s Geoff,” Geoff’s voice greeted on the other end.

Now  _ that _ made sense.

“Hey, Geoff, what’s up?” Michael replied casually.

“Gavin just wanted me to tell you that he has to go back to England for the next few weeks. His mother got into an accident and broke her leg. Other than that, she’s fine, but Gavin wants to be with his family to help with what he can while she’s recovering.”

Michael’s heart dropped a bit but he nodded, “Okay, I understand. Tell him I said to have a good flight and to text or FaceTime me whenever he can.”

“Will do,” Geoff said. “See you later, Michael.”

“Bye,” Michael said and hung up. He let out a sigh and ran his hands through his hair, “Looks like I’m not going to see Gavin on Monday.”


End file.
